“The man with the university education is in honor bound to take an active part in our political life.”

Atlantic Monthly, August 1890

“We should do no wrong to any nation, weak or strong, and we should submit to no wrong.”

Before Progressive National Convention, Chicago, August 6, 1912

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

Address before The Hamilton Club at Chicago, Illinois, April 10, 1899

“We cannot possibly do our best work as a nation unless all of us know how to act in combination as well as how to act each individually for himself.”

Remarks at the Minnesota State Fair, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 2, 1901

“Be honest, and remember that honesty counts for nothing unless back of it lie courage and efficiency.”

Speech at Groton School, Groton Massachusetts, May 24, 1904

“Every man, worth being an American citizen at all, is bound, if he does his duty, to try to do his part in politics.”

Outlook, December 21, 1895

“Free speech, exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where the people are themselves free.”

The Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918

“There is always a tendency to believe that a hundred small men can furnish leadership equal to that of one big man. This is not so.”

Ladies’ Home Journal, May 1917

“Character is far more important than intellect in making a man a good citizen or successful at his calling—meaning by character not only such qualities as honesty and truthfulness, but courage, perseverance, and self-reliance.”

North American Review, August 1890

“The candidate is the candidate of a party; but if the President is worth his salt he is the President of the whole people.”

Speech at City Park, Little Rock, Arkansas, October 25, 1905

“Example is the most potent of all things.”

Speech to Holy Name Society, Oyster Bay, New York, August 16, 1903

“The one great debt owed by the nation is that to the men who go to the front and pay with their bodies for the faith that is in them.”

Metropolitan, November 1918